AL SOMMER WAS INTERVIEWED BY RICHARD M. PHILLIPS OF THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION HISTORICAL SOCIETY ON OCTOBER 1, 2001
AA ("Al") Sommer, Jr., served as Commissioner of the SEC from 1973 to 1976 [sic]. He died on January 14, 2002.
THIS IS A MEMORIAL WEBSITE. THE QUOTED SECTION IS TAKEN VERBATIM from The Securities and Exchange Commission Historical SocietyAS INDICATED ABOVE. FOR A COMPLETE ARTICLE, PLEASE VISIT THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

p. 6
"RP: Who was SEC chairman at the time?

AS: Ray Garrett and I were appointed the same day, and we had our hearing the same day. We were sworn in the same day. He was appointed chairman at the same time I was appointed Commissioner. He had endorsed me as chairman, even though I was a Democrat.

RP: You two knew each other through ABA and other things?

AS: We knew each other very well. As a result, I had more influence over events at the Commission than I otherwise would have had."

p. 7
"RP: What was it like to work with your fellow Commissioners and the chairman?

AS: Ray was infected with the notion that collegiality was something to be sought. At that time, we didn't have the Government Sunshine Act, so we really developed a high measure of collegiality. Ray did not undertake anything of major proportions without consulting the other Commissioners. Often we would brown bag it around a conference table in his office. We didn't have to give notice of a hearing or open our meeting to outsiders, and the result was it was a very collegial Commission. We've been the last really collegial Commission they ever had."

p. 8
"RP: Did there come a time when Ray Garrett passed away?

AS: No. He resigned before he became ill and Rod Hills was appointed in his place."

p. 11
"AS: The composite tape, with the reporting system. I came into the Commission with a relatively thin knowledge of those issues, because we didn't get them in the practice much. That was mostly the practice of the New York and Chicago firms. I did have a strong opinion with regards to fixed commissions. I thought they were anti-competitive in their impact. I later learned that Dick Smith had advocated my appointment as chairman because of that posture which contrasted with Ray Garrett. Ray was in favor of fixed commissions.

There's an interesting story there. Ray and I, for the first month in Washington before my family came (his never did) had rooms side-by-side in the University Club. Ray, God rest his soul, was a renowned drinker. Every night he and I were in town, he would knock on the door about ten o'clock and say, "Why don't we have a night cap?" Frequently if both of us were in town and were unengaged for dinner, we'd have dinner together. I would always bring up at our nightcap sessions and sometimes at dinner the question of fixed commissions. My principal argument was not economic, it was political. I said if the Commission did not take action on fixed commissions, the Supreme Court or Congress would and we would lose control of the issue."

p. 12
Well, the way the fixed commissions came into focus was when the New York Stock Exchange had petitioned the Commission for permission to raise commissions We had public hearings on that. The last day of public hearings, which I think was September 21, 1973, Ray and I had been in office for less than two months. We came back to Ray's office after the close of the hearing and said, "What are we going to do?" I I spoke up and I said, "Well, I think we ought to grant this request but couple it with a decision to eliminate fixed commissions in their entirety and proclaim a date as of which fixed commissions would end sufficiently far in the future to permit firms to adapt." He said, "What do you think? What do the rest of you think?" Loomis, Owens, and Evans said, "I think that's a good idea." Ray said, "I'll go along with that."

...

"I've always contended there ought to be a plaque in the bar of the University Club that says, 'Here perished fixed commissions,' because that was really where they did die."

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